Fastening means for furniture legs, frames, and tops



Au 10, 1954 J B, BAR JR 2,686,096

URNITURE LEGS, FRAMES, AND TOPS I FASTENING MEANS FOR F Filed Oct. 20, 1951 I 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 y We on a ir. n a M2 X A m. J 6

Aug. 10, 1954 J, B. BARNES, JR 2,686,095

FASTENING MEANS FOR FURNITURE LEGS, FRAMES, AND TOPS Filed Oct. 20, 1951 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Patented Aug. 10, 1954 FASTENING MEANS FOR FURNETURE LEGS, FRAMES, AND TOPS John B. Barnes, Jr., Des Moines, Iowa Application October 20, 1951,

Claims.

My invention relates to the art of detachably joining two or more pieces of furniture or the like.

Furniture, among many other commodities, is today sometimes sold in a knocked-down form for assembly by the user. Such pieces usually require some tool such as a screw driver or hammer for assembling and are finally glued so that once completed, it is not intended that they be taken apart. such prefabricated furniture is not usable until it has been assembled and time permitted for the glue to set, since the gluing is an important step in making the joints rigid.

requires no special skill in assembling or disassembling.

Still a further object of this invention is to provide a o nt or fastening means for furniture apparent to accompanying drawings,

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a stool assembled by means of my new joint,

Fig. 2 is a reduced perspective view showing the stool of Fig. l disassembled and arranged into compact form for storage or transporting, Fig. 3 is a top view of one corner of the stool of Fig. l with a portion cut away and a portion in section to more fully illustrate its construction,

Fig. 4 is an exploded of the stool in Fig. 1,

Fig. 5 is an enlarged used in this joint,

Fig. 6 is a cross-sectional View of this joint taken on the line 66 of Fig. 3, and

view of one corner section view of the securing dowel ordinary type four lesser or greater number Serial No. 252,250

Fig. 7 is a fragmentary exploded view showing a corner post or leg and one of the side rails securable thereto.

Referring to the drawings I have selected an legged stool 10 to illustrate my new fastening means. This joint will be described for only one corner leg section but it will be appreciated that the construction pointed out is dupiicated for each of the legs. Obviously, a of legs or posts may be employed in any specific unit without departing from the principle of my invention.

It is also to be observed that while I have preferably selected a piece of furniture by which ,to describe my invention, it will become apparent that the principle I have conceived can without change be adapted to toys and the like not only for use in assembling a toy, but to provide a source of training for a child in the assembly zand disassembly of the same.

The stool [0 consists or post members l2, a

of a plurality of like legs number of side rails or A vertical groove or slot that is adapted to be frictionally arranged within the slot 20 as will be apparent from Figs. 4 and 7. of the rail M will be on means to limit any downward movement of the tongue 22 within-the have made the groove 20 of dove-tail shape and the tenon 22 is flared or dove-tailed so that the well known dove-tail interlocking joint is formed. With such dove-tailing, the rail M will be arranged by sliding the same downwardly into the mortise socket 20. In this position it is apparent that the rail and leg can be pulled apart in one direction only and that is by moving the tenon 22 upwardly in the slot 20. As pointed out heretoiore, each leg is secured to its respective rail or rails in the same manner just described and thus secured a basic frame structure is created. To this is added a seat [6 which is mounted on the top of the frame as shown in Fig. 1. At a point on the seat i6 that will be in engagement with the top of a leg l2, a transverse hole 24 is made which is countersunk at the top as shown at 26 in Fig. 4. A shallow vertical hole 28 is made in the top of the leg l2 so that when the seat it is in place as shown, the opening 24 and hole as will register. A dowel til provided with an enlarged head 32 and a transverse opening 34 in its lower shank portion is frictionally mounted through the hole 24 and into the hole 28 so that the dowel head 32 seats in the countersunk portion is of the hole 2 3. A horizontal opening 36 extends through the top portion of the leg to register with the hole 28 and the hole 3 3 in the bottom of the dowel 39. A small tapered dowel pin 38 is positioned in the opening 3i: (Fig. 4) so that it passes through the hole 3 into the dowel and locks the same in position. The length of the dowel pin 38 should preferably correspond to the width of the leg so that it will be flush with opposite sides thereof when in place. When placing the dowel pin 38, the tapered end is first inserted and thus it can be easily manually pushed into place.

It will be observed that for most uses the pin will be rather small and since the taper may not be readily susceptible to the eye, I have marked the tapered end Mi in some identifiable manner such as by coloring.

fhe seat it when mounted as described locks the rails it against any accidental upward movement and when all corners or leg sections are assembled as described, the completed stool, chair, or the like is ready for use.

By way of adding strength to any assembled unit, I have shown a corner which is arranged in relation to each leg as shown by the broken lines in Fig. 3. Each end of these braces i8 is beveled at a forty-five degree angle as at 32 so they will fit flush to the respective rails id in a well known manner. However, on the upper portion of each end 42 of the braces (preferably about the upper one-half thereof) I provide the flared tenon or tongue M that extend perpendicularly from the beveled edges d2. On the inner side of each rail Hi near each tenon 22, a flared groove or dove-tail socket 45 is formed that communicates with the top of the rail and extends downwardly for a distance equal to the length of the brace tenon 44. In using these braces it they are set in place prior to securing the seat it and this is accomplished merely by frictionally sliding the braced tenons 44 downwardly in the rail sockets 36. In doing this, the bottom of the sockets 36 will serve as a stop means to limit the downward movement of the braces l3 and the braces when in place, should have their top edges on the same horizontal plane as the top edges of the rai Preferably the braces will be of the same width and thickness as the rails so that both their top and bottom brace member 18 edges will be on the same respective planes. It will be observed that the braces can be removed only in one direction, namely upwardly, the same as the rails, so that when the seat is in place as described, it acts to lock them against accidental release.

No screws, bolts or glue is necessary or required in assembling an article by use of my joint means as the dowel 30 and dowel pin 38 will lock the seat in place and the seat in turn will serve to lock all other rails and braces used to make a rigid assembly.

To disassemble the stool shown in Fig. 1 or any other article embodying my joint means, the dowel pin 38 is first removed and the other members manually separated in inverse order to that of their assembly. Preferably a pencil or other pointed object can be used to push the dowel pin 38 out far enough to manually grasp it and in doing this, the dowel end fill having some identiiying indicia thereon will indicate the correct end against which the pencil or the like will be pushed.

From the above disclosure, it will be apparent that the ease of assembly and disassembly of a piece of furniture by my new joint or fastening means has many advantages. From the standpoint of the user, he can of course quickly set up an immediately usable item. No tools or glue are required nor is any special skill necessary and probably of special advantage is the fact that in event the use of the particular article is no longer required or in case of moving from one house or building or city to another, each unit embodying my invention can quickly be disassembled and formed into a compact unit (Fig. 2) for storage or transporting and it is obvious that a much smaller space will sufidce for an article arranged as shown in Fig. 2 than for the same article completely assembled.

It is intended that the uses for my fastening means are not to be limited to standard articles of furniture. As for example, it is well known that furniture in miniature is made for use by children and in this respect my invention may be embodied not only for its practical application in shipping, using and storing the same, but for its educational value and training for the child in doing the actual assembly and dis-assembly himself.

Some changes may be made in the construction and arrangement of my fastening means for securing furniture and like items without departing from the real spirit and purpose of my invention, and it is my intention to cover by my claims, any modified forms of structure or use of mechanical equivalents which may be reasonably included within their scope.

I claim:

1. A means for releasably fastening the several parts of an article of furniture such as support members or legs, rails and a. top member, without requiring nails, screws, plates or a bonding agent, comprising, said support members being provided with grooves communicating with the tops thereof and terminating at a point intermediate the ends thereof, rails, tenon on the ends of said rails, said support members interconnected by said rails with the tenons slidable into and out of said grooves respectively from the top only, said top member arranged on said rails and said support members, dowels removably connecting said top member to each respective support member, and dowels in each support member removably interlocking with said ends of said rails, said support members interconnected by said rails with the tenons slidable into and out of said grooves respectively from the top only, said top member arranged on said rails and said support members, dowels removably connecting said top member to each respective support member and tapered dowels insertable and removable from one side only of each moval of all other parts.

4. A means for releasably fastening the several parts of an article of furniture such as support members or legs, rail and a top member, without requiring nails, screws, plates or a bonding agent, comprising,

mediate the ends thereof, rails, tenons on the ends of said rails, said support members interconnected by said rails with the tenons slidable into and out of said grooves respectively from the top only, said top member arranged on said rails and said support members, dowels removably connecting said top member to each respecmember, said dowels insertable into and removable from said top member from one each support member removably interlocking with said first mentioned dowels respectively whereby said top member is locked in place and becomes the key locking element against the removal of all other parts.

5. A means for releasably fastening the sevparts of an art1cle of furniture such as support members or legs, rails and a top member, without requiring nails, screws, plates or a bonding agent, comprising, said support members be ing provided with grooves communicating with the top thereof and terminating at a point inter mediate the ends thereof, rails, tenons on the ends of said rails, said support members interconnected by said rails with into and out first mentioned dowels respectively whereby said top member is locked in place and becomes the key locking element against the removal of all other parts.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 206,234 Hall et al July 23, 1878 740,846 Giddings Oct, 6, 1903 973,144 Staples Oct. 18, 1910 1,078,186 Cartier Nov. 11, 1913 1,167,155 Derby Jan. 4, 1916 1,423,949 Laughlin July 25, 1922 1,590,586 McDonald June 29, 1926 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 3,153 Great Britain 191 20,320 Great Britain 1900 30,547 Netherlands Mar. 15, 1933 628,680 France Oct. 27, 1927 

